Conventionally, a technology has been known, in which a power storage device such as a secondary battery or an electric double-layer capacitor is applied to a railway system, and kinetic energy of a vehicle is effectively used by storing surplus regenerative power generated when braking the vehicle and using the stored power when the vehicle is accelerated. In this case, a buck boost converter (hereinafter, a bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter) capable of controlling power in bidirectional directions is used for connecting a direct-current wire and the power storage device (for example, Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-206111
However, the bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter as described above cannot control current when a primary-side voltage is lower than a secondary-side voltage in the converter because of the circuit configuration. Therefore, the bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter needs to be used under the condition that the primary-side voltage is always higher than the secondary-side voltage.
For avoiding such a problem, a DC-DC converter (hereinafter, a bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter) is useful, which is capable of causing power to flow bidirectionally from the primary side to the secondary side and from the secondary side to the primary side regardless of a magnitude relation between the primary-side voltage and the secondary-side voltage of the bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter. The circuit configuration thereof is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 2.
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-268900